In the Leading People class at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, students step beyond the classroom to interview leaders who inspire them.

Working in teams, they record in-depth conversations and transform them into compelling podcast episodes. Each episode features a different leader, sharing real stories, challenges, and insights on what leadership truly means—guided by the fresh perspectives and thoughtful questions of Haas students.

Real leaders. Real stories. A new generation asking the questions.

Listen to the Leading People series on the Here@Haas Podcast. Subscribe and don’t miss an episode.

In this episode of Here@Haas, Michele and Vance kick off a new faculty series with one of Haas’ most celebrated educators: Distinguished Teaching Fellow Greg LaBlanc. Known for his dynamic classes on strategy, game theory, and behavioral finance, and for his influential podcast, unSILOed, Greg shares how an early Montessori education shaped his interdisciplinary curiosity, the unconventional academic path that led him to Berkeley, and why he believes the future belongs to those who can integrate ideas across fields.

Together, they explore innovation, entrepreneurship, competitive moats in the AI era, the role of proprietary data, and why enduring success often requires “fixing things before they break.” Greg also discusses character as life’s true project, the importance of long-term learning, and the deep alumni connections that enrich his life far beyond the classroom.

This episode offers insights for anyone considering strategy, disruption, and building a meaningful career in a rapidly changing world.

If it ain’t broke, fix it anyway!

 I see Haas as ambassadors for this vision. We go out into the world and populate these companies with this unique view of the importance of innovation, the importance of rethinking. I mean, why is questioning the status quo the first of our defining principles? It's because if you don't question the status quo, status quo will crush you. And so one of the things that I always like to say is an implicit slogan of Haasies is if it ain't broke, fix it anyway. It is gonna be broke if you don't do anything. And so being capable of anticipating the future, of being open to being wrong, being open to continuous reinvention, that's what I love about being here.

On what he is most proud of in his life

​​ It has nothing to do with worldly accomplishments. It has to do with character development. So, not to say that I've got this wonderful, great character. I mean, there's tons of room for improvement, but I think at the end of the day, the only thing that you have control over in your life is your character: the way you act, the way you think, the way you behave, the way you treat other people, and your approach to the world.

On playing the long game

There are people who just think they have forever to do stuff, and then there are other folks who think that they have to do everything right away. And so I would say play the long game. Understand that you might live fairly long period of time and, you know, you might not. Right? And so, learn like you're gonna live forever, really focus on learning without any necessarily obvious reason to think that what you're learning is gonna be immediately valuable. You'll find that things that you learn at one point in your life turn out to be much valuable later in life, oftentimes in unexpected ways. So, focus on learning with a long-term perspective.

Why good MBAs are good generalists

To be a good generalist is to have this very active mental switchboard that sends you off in all sorts of directions, makes connections that other people don't see, thinks analogously, and sometimes metaphorically, right?  Scientists often think in very linear, very structured ways. Start with small building blocks, work up to more sophisticated things. I think the superpower of a good MBA is that you don't limit yourself to that way of thinking, but that you have all these combinations, these neural combinations that send you in different directions.

• Greg LaBlanc – LinkedIn
• unSILOed Podcast

In this episode of Here@Haas, we sit down with the remarkable Jeep Kline — Haas lecturer, founder and managing partner of Raise Well Ventures, and former World Bank economist whose career spans deep-tech venture capital, global economic development, and transformative leadership. Jeep shares her journey from growing up in Bangkok during the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, to advising ministers of finance in emerging markets, to becoming a Silicon Valley VC and founder of multiple funds. She also discusses the origins of the Haas Impact Fund, the rapidly changing job market shaped by AI, and what it takes to succeed as an entrepreneur or investor in today’s environment. Her story is one of purpose, grit, and redefining what impact really means.

On navigating your career with purpose:

“ I like to tell people that the most important thing that you have to have (is) purpose—why you do what you do. And it has to fit your broad principle and your belief. Because in the journey that you're gonna see in the next 20 years, it's gonna be up and down. Things are gonna change way more rapidly than my generation. And without purpose, it's gonna hurt—it's gonna hurt you, it's gonna hurt your mentality, but with purpose, you're gonna allow yourself to fail along the way because, you know, it's just a learning. You get up and do it again. You are gonna figure out. So, having a purpose of why you do what you do, you will allow yourself to fail and also succeed.”

On what truly makes a startup succeed:

“ It is the quality of the management team. That is by far the most important. Mostly, things are gonna change, especially today, as you mentioned, because of AI, that is going to create a rapid change in our society and technology development, and so on. And all of these are gonna come back to the founders. How do they adjust? How do they pivot? How do founders actually handle that? There's gonna be a bunch of things that they're gonna have to solve. How do they think about the industry? Where do they think an industry is going next, and how do they adjust the business, the management team, and themselves to take advantage of the industry and the new technology? That is the most important thing, more so than the technology itself.”

On long-term success and risk-taking:

“If I could tell my younger self, I would tell myself not to worry about how people perceive me. You don't have to care about that. You play a long game, and you try to hit your ground running, take risks, and it's okay to fail. You get up, you pivot, you learn from it, and you do it again. And I guarantee you, no matter how long it takes, you know this is a probability, right? When you fail enough, you will also succeed enough. It's just a rule. And I just want us to think about the long game instead of the short-term KPI and how society and your friends, or like peer pressure, that a lot of you probably go through. Don't worry about any of that.”

• Jeep Kline LinkedIn Profile
• Raisewell Ventures – Jeep’s deep-tech impact venture fund
• Haas Impact Fund – The experiential VC course & student-led fund at Berkeley Haas